After losing a taut pitcher's duel to the Yankees on Friday night, the Mets salvaged some dignity by taking two out of three to claim the upper hand in the CitiField segment of this season's Subway Series. The wins push them a step or two beyond last week's multiple crises, buying embattled manager Jerry Manuel a bit more time to turn his ballclub around, though he's hardly out of the woods. With the ravenous New York media momentarily quieted, it's a fine time to inventory what's gone right and wrong for the club thus far, and what solutions are available.

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The A's and Padres give us a dog day afternoon, but the Yankees stick to the plan at night.

The big story was the continuing tear of Frank Thomas, who hit two homers to account for the early lead and the insurance run in the ninth inning. What is most impressive about the two shots is how different the pitches were, and how they showed the broad range of Thomas' still-impressive batting skills.

The Cubs shuffle through pitching options, the Brewers have one of the most interesting rosters in the game, and the Dodgers fight through injuries as they try to stay in the race. This and much more in Transaction Analysis.

Are patient hitters better hitters, or do free-swingers get a bad rap? James Click has the answers.

Even if you had never seen baseball before, you could infer from the multitude of replays and even the superfluous dirt-cam introduced in the World Series this year that an at-bat is a complex series of events that requires lengthy analysis. Or you can divide it into two separate events: decision and result. From the batter's perspective, the decision is simple: swing or do not swing (there is no try). Once that choice is made, the batter can additionally influence the outcome if he chooses to swing, or he transfers the decision to the umpire if he does not.

In order to determine if the decision was "good" or not, we must evaluate both the choice and the effectiveness of that choice. For example, if the batter chooses not to swing, that choice can be deemed "correct" if the pitch is called a ball or "incorrect" if it's a strike. (Though many of you may debate that in light of some of the recent strike zone interpretations by our friendly umpiring crews.) Once the batter has decided to swing, the results become more varied and therefore more difficult to evaluate.

The Twins fritter away two live, young arms. The Mets get to mix and match in the outfield with Cliff Floyd and Karim Garcia missing time. The over/under on Jeffrey Hammonds hitting the DL again is the end of this sentence. These and other happenings in today's Transaction Analysis.

Bill Stoneman and Mike Scioscia get rewarded for 2002. The Indians and Rangers swap pitching prospect for hitting prospect. The Yankees grab Armando Benitez in a non-Sierran move. The Jays get a steal in Stewart-for-Kielty. These and other tidbits, plus a full array of Kahrlisms, in this edition of Transaction Analysis.